Texans - Bucs: Tampa Bay will struggle to stop the run
by Sander on Nov 11, 2011 2:07 PM EST
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will struggle to stop the Houston Texans' running game. That shouldn't be a surprise: the Bucs have had an up-and-down run defense but struggled especially against the New Orleans Saints last week. Meanwhile, the Houston Texans have one of the most productive running games in the NFL.
With 1,396 yards they're ranked third in the NFL in total yardage. By Football Outsiders' numbers they have the seventh most efficient running game in the NFL.
But there's a more specific reason why the Bucs will struggle to stop the Texans on the ground: the Houston Texans run a zone-blocking scheme, and that scheme has destroyed this defense in the past.
This was most obvious last season, when the Bucs faced the Washington Redskins. Running backs Ryan Torain and Keiland Williams averaged 6.7 yards per carry en route to a 188-yard game. The Bucs couldn't stop that zone running scheme, and that despite the fact that the Redskins hadn't been particularly good at running the ball that year.
The problem for the Bucs is that they fail to consistently get penetration against zone schemes. A zone scheme is based on lateral movement: the offensive line moves sideways, trying to stretch out a defense. The running back then has the freedom to determine where the hole forms - there is no pre-determined point of attack.
The key to stopping that is getting into the backfield. If you penetrate the line of scrimmage against a zone scheme the running back can't cut back, and you eliminate a lot of the running game's options. The only player the Bucs had who could consistently get in the backfield on running plays was Gerald McCoy - and he was placed on injured reserve this week.
Brian Price has the talent to be disruptive, but he isn't consistent enough and still struggles at times - likely a consequence of the massive surgery to his hamstrings and hips he had this offseason. The only hope the Bucs have: Albert Haynesworth. That's not very reassuring.
Another option the Bucs have is to just send run blitzes on every down. That's what they did in the second half against the Redskins game last season. It worked well: it's hard to run against nine defenders no matter how good your running game is. Of course, that gives the opponent options in the passing game.
The Redskins with Donovan McNabb couldn't take advantage, but if the Bucs do this against the Texans the secondary will have to play its best game of the season. Stopping Matt Schaub, Owen Daniels, Kevin Walter and Arian Foster is hard enough when the defense has a full complement of coverage players. It's nearly impossible when the secondary is shorthanded because of blitzes. At least the Bucs won't have to face Andre Johnson.
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If Talib was playing like he was last year
then the run blitzes would sound a whole lot better to me. Would be a great game for the corners to step up and play like last year.
Yugly.
I've never understood all this Zone Blocking stuff.
I associate it with all the chop blocking the Broncos used to do, and I always hear about lateral movement and stuff, but so what? Do “man” or “power” blocking schemes not have the capacity to slant to one side or the other? When I think “zone” I think of everyone having a spot to maintain. Therefore “Zone Blocking” to me sounds like if two defenders hit one blockers zone, then no one else is going to step in and take one of them. It seems to me that a line always has to be in a bit of a zone to maintain the integrity of the line or the pocket, but they’re still going to generally know who their man is.
The goal of man vs zone is very different
With man blocking schemes the object is to drive players back, and to create one specific hole through double teams and extra blockers at one point on the line.
In zone blocking schemes, that’s not what they do. The point in zone blocking schemes is to get the defense to move sideways, stretching them out, hopefully opening up holes. They don’t try to get an overwhelming force going at one point.
Zone vs man schemes aren’t so much about which player is assigned to which player, but about the object of the blocking scheme.
That makes perfect sense as far as it goes...
but I still don’t see what the big deal is. First of all we’re only talking about Run Blocking here. Does it not apply to Pass Blocking? And why on earth would linemen not be trained to do all of those things from the day they being learning the position? On this play we’re going to try to push them back. Now that they’re expecting to be pushed back we’ll try to push them to one side or the other, or pinch, or spread, or whatever.
I’m sure it’s more complicated than that but no one has ever been able to explain it to my satisfaction.
by Brooklyn Buc on Nov 11, 2011 4:36 PM EST up reply actions
This only really applies to run blocking, yes
Pass blocking is its own art, and you can’t really use full man blocking in pass sets because defensive line stunts will kill you. All teams essentially do the same thing in pass blocking.
And yes, all teams run both man and zone schemes in the run game. The Bucs predominantly run man(power) plays because that’s what their players do best, but they run some zone plays too (and generally fail at them). The difference is the level of commitment and the type of players you need to run each play. For instance, Davin Joseph is a terrible run blocker in zone schemes, but a terrific run blocker in man schemes.
In zone schemes it’s more about moving like one unit rather than winning individual matchups, too. It requires a lot of practice and experience and consistency of personnel to run a good zone blocking scheme. You can get away with inferior personnel because of that, but it does take a lot of time to get everyone to work together so that it succeeds.
This is going to be a big test.
Probably the best running team that we will or have faced all year. Unless our D line and can some pressure and the tackling from our LB’s and DB’s doesnt improve, we will be in big trouble.
I cant see us stopping them. The problem being that even if we can somehow contain there running game, we are then opening ourselves to their aerial attack (minus Johnson) and they have been good in that department as well…
We have got to get pressure and tackle to have any chance in this game….
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